Clearer Than Water
by Triforce Garner
Summary: When he looks inside himself to find the answers, what will he find staring back at him? What will his reflection look like?


Author's Note:

After the events of Dream Drop Distance.

Kingdom Hearts 2.5 HD ReMix is coming out in roughly two to three weeks and I'm OVER THE MOON about it. Anybody else (because of course I did!) pick up the 1.5 ReMix?

Anyway, I played through Dream Drop Distance and read some articles on Tetsuya Nomura's comments about the series and decided to write a little oneshot referencing the majority of the games. I think only 'Coded' got left out for this one? And I promise, it wasn't on purpose! Anyway!

**Warnings**: Spoilers (of course; see my 'What Do We Talk About?' oneshot for a whole rant about it) up to Dream Drop Distance. Otherwise nothing.

Hopefully you enjoy this oneshot. I also hope you're all excited for the 2.5 HD ReMix and later on the highly anticipated Kingdom Hearts 3!

Oh! And one last thing! These are the formats of 'speech' in this oneshot.

"Normal Speech" - _A voice in the head _- **_A memory from the_ past**

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><p>'Clearer Than Water'<p>

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><p><strong><em>I heard your voice. It cut through the darkness around me.<em>**

**_All alone I followed the sound, into a sea of light..._**

**_...and found myself here, with you._**

* * *

><p>"He's really something, y'know?"<p>

Riku turned his head and grinned at his other childhood friend. They sat in a rickety old wooden boat that barely held them afloat. Both had escaped on it to their favorite place in the whole world, the whole of all worlds...a warm little island that held the keys to their past.

"Yah, he is."

His redheaded companion turned back, looking over the water with a small smile on her face and a distant look in her eyes. Riku watched her: her expression, her posture, her entire presence. She seemed lost in thought...in memories.

"I know you miss him again already." Riku observed. He reached over, placing a gentle hand on her shoulder. She nodded and grabbed his hand. She squeezed it.

"I don't know what I'd do without him." she said. She had forgotten him once, but now his face was clear in her head. She couldn't forget it again if she tried. The chains in her heart were firmly sealed and her memories complete.

She sat up straighter before turning to look back at Riku.

"You missed him when you two were apart too, didn't you?" she asked, though she already knew the answer.

Just as she expected, Riku said nothing. Instead, he simply smiled at her. His face portrayed his feelings. He loved his friend like a younger brother.

"What do you think you saw inside Sora?" she said, changing the subject when she felt satisfied with Riku's answer.

Riku shrugged. "I'm not sure of anything but...perhaps he's got a few puzzle pieces in his past we haven't connected." he said, trailing off as his eyes scanned the shoreline of the island.

Kairi reached out, taking Riku's chin in her hand and turned his face to look at her. She scooted closer, situating her body to face him.

"Let's go over this carefully...you saw three people in his heart and one of them was Roxas. One of them had some resemblance to Roxas...and the last was a dark haired girl you've never seen before." she said. Riku shook his head.

"I don't know...I just don't know. I mean, Roxas I completely understand. He's Sora's nobody...he's connected to him. But the other Roxas...and the girl...they must be connected to him too. I don't know what he did the entire time he was off the island which was almost two years worth of time but..." Riku bit his lip.

"We must know who they are. There's gotta be something there." Kairi said. She placed her hands on either side of her head in concentration.

She had to do what she could to help Sora. Her friend. That's why she had sat down with Riku to think things over. That's why she had agreed to go with him to Master Yen Sid.

"I must have seen her before..." Riku muttered under his breath. Slowly, Kairi lifted her head, her eyes looking up at him.

"Really?" she ventured, hopeful.

Riku shook his head as the more he thought about it the more the vagueness disappeared. "I don't know when. I don't know where...but I've met her before. I know that for sure."

Kairi giggled, lifting her hand to her lips to cover them. "Y'know, that rhymed a little bit!"

Riku smiled at her, a tired sparkle still residing in his eyes. She smiled back, glad to know he was still her old friend inside there...despite all that had happened to him in the past two years.

"I wonder why you can't remember. Do you think it has anything to do with what happened at that 'Castle Oblivion' place?" Kairi asked. Riku shook his head.

"It's hard to think that far back. I mean, there's still so much that's happened. So much that I need to piece together." he gasped when Kairi suddenly shoved him playfully.

"C'mon Riku, you're one of the smartest guys I know! Without you...gosh, who knows where Sora and I would've ended up!" she joked. Riku made a face before turning back to his serious thoughts.

"They each asked me questions too..." Riku said, running through the freshest memories he had for clues. In his head, he saw flashes. Sora's goofy faces he made whenever Riku felt down. Roxas' disheartened stare. The solemn faces of that Roxas look-alike and the black-haired girl...the looks on their faces he knew so well. He had felt the same way before. It was the expression he made after waiting in the dark for what he'd lost to come and find him at last.

**_What is it that you're so afraid of?_**

**_What is the one thing you care about more than anything else?_**

**_What do you wish?_**

"...but I don't think they had anything to do with them." Riku mumbled.

"Hm, I'm not so sure. I mean you told me Roxas was afraid of losing his friends and his identity...right?"

Riku blinked for a moment, taking that thought in. "Y-you're absolutely right." Riku realized in awe. Kairi shrugged.

"Why wouldn't I be?" she laughed. Riku narrowed his eyes a moment.

"That guy...he was definitely Roxas. His voice, his clothes, his posture...he was Roxas. No doubt about that. So who...?"

"What did the girl look like?" Kairi asked, holding her knees to her chest. Riku turned his head to look at her, staring for a second.

"Sort of like...like you, Kairi."

"So maybe she has something to do with me?" Kairi wondered. She had learned through the course of their experiences that 'coincidences' like these were definitely more than such.

"Perhaps."

"And what about the Roxas clone? What made you think he wasn't the real Roxas?"

Riku swallowed, closing his eyes as he ran over the thoughts he experienced inside Sora's heart. What had made him change his mind?

"I've never met him before until that moment. His clothes...his demeanor. His expression didn't read 'regret' like Roxas' did. He just seemed...sad. Roxas looked genuinely racked with guilt but the other guy...he looked like he'd accepted it all a long time ago."

"Ok, and what else?" Kairi pressed gently, hoping to guide Riku's memory.

"His clothes were like...mismatched. And his voice...it sounded confident despite where he was. Roxas sounded defeated. I had made up my mind on the fact that he wasn't Roxas before that...but the voice cemented it."

"And you said you've never met him?"

"That's right...never."

Riku sighed. How was he supposed to figure out the name of boy he'd never met before?

Sora...who were these people living inside your heart?

* * *

><p>He felt like he was floating in the sea. His thoughts echoed through waves cradling his soul. He felt his fingers flowing through the water. He felt like he was home.<p>

He wrinkled his nose, but couldn't open his eyes.

_Hey, can you hear me?_

"Yes. Who am I...really?"

_You're confused about your identity?_

He frowned at that. "Well of course I am. He said...what did he say?"

**_Data can be copied. Memory can be manipulated._**

He nodded. "Oh, he did say that."

**_The memory and heart are tightly linked._**

"Xemnas..." he whispered. "He wanted to distract me. To dishearten me."

**_Data does not dream. Cannot dream. You haven't the slightest idea where you are- that you have already wandered off the path._**

"Right. That was when Ansem was trying to clue me in on my fate. He was telling me what was happening and laughing at me when I didn't see it."

**_Your heart, your memory, your data, and your dreams..._**

Unaware, he clinched his jaw together. His heart began to race and his breathing sped up. Faintly, he was aware of his heart wrenching in pain as he anticipated the end of this thought process.

**_The bits and bytes that have made up your life so far- can you say for sure they are not just copies of someone else's?_**

"**_YES_**!" he shouted suddenly. His panic had erupted from within him. He realized how much that one question had made him feel doubtful of himself.

_Sora...are you okay?_

Sora smiled, his eyes still closed. He felt the searing pain in his heart being quieted by a familiar warmth. He nodded again. "Yes, I'm alright."

He heard laughter.

_Yah, you've always been 'alright'...haven't you? You take care of yourself._

"Well, it's not just me. I have lots of friends too! They..." Sora sighed. "They're the barrier in my heart. They keep me walking the right path. They're..."

"My strength." _My strength._

Sora raised his eyebrows at the voice copying his words at the same time. "How do you know that?"

_I...used to feel the same way. I still do but, well..._

Sora frowned again. "Don't be upset! I'll help you through it!"

He heard laughter again.

_You already have._

"I have?"

_Yes. You have. You..._

**_You gave me something back when I needed it most. A second chance._**

Sora smiled once again. He remembered. He knew this voice.

"I did?"

The voice laughed again.

**_But...now I have to go back to sleep again._**

"Are you sad?" Sora asked, reciting long-last script from his memory. He had forgotten so much in his life, and then remembered it again. But this...he could never lose it. It was trapped here, impossible to lose.

And the voice continued the recital, like a tribute to an ancient play.

**_Would you mind if I stayed here, with you?_**

Sora chuckled. "Sure, if it'll make you feel better. But you know...you've always been welcome. Ever since the first time you asked for my help."

_I was grateful._

Sora's grin widened. "Yah, I know!"

_But Sora, you shouldn't ever question who you are. Your identity is unique...like no one else alive. You have more power inside your heart than anyone could ever dream of._

"But I..."

**_That's why it has to be you._**

Sora furrowed his eyebrows. "Roxas...is that you? Are you okay?"

_He's here. We all are._

"All of you? But...who are you?"

_We're remnants. Lost in the darkness and caught in the embrace of your heart's light. We were left behind...and then found by you. Some of us created, others recycled. The important thing, though, is that you never gave us up. You kept us here. Accepted us. You took us in even though the worlds outside rejected us._

"I'm..."

_Sora._

"A replacement for..."

_The keyblade._

"That doesn't make me anyone! Riku was supposed to wield the keyblade..."

_But who did it choose over him?_

Sora opened his eyes at last.

The waves in his memory washed across his boots. He could remember the air, coated in salt, blowing through his hair.

"I've been having these weird thoughts lately. Like, is any of this for real, or not?"

He thought about Donald and Goofy, and the times they spent together. The places they went to, the things they experienced. Heartbreak. Frustration. Laughter. Sadness. Excitement. He thought of his best friends in the whole world: Riku and Kairi. He thought of King Mickey and all their other friends, striving to help him on his mission to stop the heartless.

"And...I want to line the pieces up. Yours...and mine."

He thought about Roxas and his friends he'd cherished before accepting Sora. He thought about the voice, whom he'd brought out of darkness. He thought about Naminé and the girl who appeared in his dreams during Xehanort's plot when he talked to Naminé. He thought about the woman on the beach who told him to keep Riku safe as he went down a dark path. He thought about the man Riku spoke too, and what he now knew as a keyblade in his hand. Something tied them all together. He would find out why.

"I've been conflicted...I'm sorry for not asking for your help. I'm sorry for not remembering who I am. I'm done walking this path alone. I'm going to do what I said. I'm going to draw strength from my friends and let them, and my heart, guide me."

Sora bowed his head, clutching his chest where his heart was. "And thank you."

_You're going to stumble again later on. You'll get lost and you'll continue to doubt yourself._

He nodded. "Yah, I understand that."

_But Sora? **Don't ever forget. We're always with you.** There are so many hearts that are connected to yours. So many bright lights that have dimmed, only to become bright again once you've touched them. Your light is strong. Your heart is strong._

"Right!" Sora said, his chest filling with pride.

_Keep talking to us. Keep asking for help. It'll be alright in the end._

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><p>Author's Note:<p>

I'm super excited! Aren't you?

Review if you can! See you around!


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